HAMILTON — Trenton Catholic Academy’s Iron Palace and the Eastern States Christmas Invitational Tournament served as the site for two of Princeton Day School’s biggest victories last season.

After an uneven start to this season, PDS co-head coach Paris McLean was hopeful that the Iron Palace could reinvigorate his club and get it on the right track.

For 12 minutes that looked like it would be exactly what would happen as the Panthers jumped out to an eight-point lead over an always-tough Rancocas Valley squad.

But all that has kept the Panthers from finding their form this season slowly began to creep back up.

Rancocas Valley closed out the first half with a 14-2 run — the final three points coming on a half-court, buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Vince Anfield — and ran away with a 71-47 tonight at TCA.

“You kind of just feel the momentum deflate,” McLean said of Anfield’s 3-pointer. “They end up with the 24-point third quarter; that’s unacceptable. You have to trim those down.”

The Panthers fall to the John Gres consolation bracket where it will continue its search for its first win against Sussex Tech, which was rolled by Lakewood, Sunday afternoon at 1:30.

“We came in with the mindset that we’re the defending champs,” McLean said. “We could hang our hat on that. We’re a good basketball team. We just need to show the county again that we’re a good team. We’re still battling some injuries and are trying to find the right pieces. That’s tough when you’re trying to find yourself and you’re on this big of a stage.”

Not having an answer for the Red Devils’ 6-foot-5 senior forward Nick Davidson didn’t bode well for the Panthers’ quest of trying to right the ship.

Davidson, headed to Bloomsburg University, poured in a game-high 25 points by connecting on 11 of 20 shots, including converting six of his final attempts from the field.

From the time PDS held a 21-14 at the 4:22 second quarter until Deante Cole scored on and offensive rebound and putback at the 5:30 mark of the third quarter — a span of 6:52 — Rancocas Valley put together a 22-6 run.

“I thought we played a great first half of basketball,” McLean said. “I thought we had them on their heels. It was just sustaining that lead. Basketball is a game of runs but they ended the first half on a big run and went ahead by four. ”